This book offers students and scholars an introduction to and insight into the wealth of historiographies produced in various Muslim milieus. Four articles deal with the classical period: archaeology and history in early Islamic Amman; an analysis of sources dealing with Muwaḥḥid North Africa; al-Maqrizī’s prosopographical production; the rise of early Ottoman historiography.
Three examine sacred history as historiography: in 10th century Fatimid Egypt; in the 16th century Indian Chishtī Sufi milieu; and in the Sino-Muslim Confucian tradition in Qing China. The final two articles provide fresh approaches to historiography by respectively looking into the sijils of Ottoman Cairo as historical sources and by highlighting the regional approach to the writing of the history of the Indian Ocean.

Contributors: Frédéric Bauden, Heather J. Empey, Derryl MacLean, Sami G. Massoud, Murat Cem Mengüç, Reem Meshal, Hyondo Park, Patricia Risso, Shafique N. Virani and Michael Wood.